SuzyBruisy's 1982 Ford Escort on CarDomain

Here's my Escort among its more pointy-nosed brethren.

The Lamborghini guys liked what I'd did with my engine. Steve (in the suit) used to sell Fords back in the late 80's.

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7/13/08 - The Weber Carb

I've wanted to get rid of the Holley for ages. I love how it makes the car sound, but it's simply too much carb for this engine. Though it's the smallest 4bbl on the market, it's just bogging out the Escort's little 1.9 with too much gas. So I sprung for a new Weber!

Here's the intake: center machined out for the Holley. And on the right is the bracket that Autosport John fabbed to accomodate the weird throttle cable.

Here's the carb, installed.

The Escort down at the head shop for some quick tuning...

...and, we're back on the road!

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1/13/08 - Escort's new life in Seattle

This weekend we had the first beautiful day we've had in weeks, so I decided to take my little sunny-day fun car out for some glamor shots. Here we are at Gasworks park...

...and in West Seattle overlooking the city. How interesting that they painted their telescope Ford Engine Blue.

On the boat ramp at Alki Beach:

And at sunset, just a few miles further down:

It might be awhile before we get another eve as nice as this.

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9/16/07

Balls. My Escort's pathetic performance on the Carlisle dyno was repeated this weekend at Drift Office, despite the smaller carb jets. The only thing that changed is that now the mixture isn't so rich that it doesn't even show up on the chart. But I'm really going to have to rethink this whole 4-barrel setup. How about dual Webers?

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8/6/07: It's high time for an update.

My Escort completed the journey without incident and has been tooling around Seattle. It's good to be back on the West Coast. Next mod will be exhaust, including this tough Flowmaster 40-series sent to me by my Escort buddy Austin!

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::Transcontinental Escort Trek::
Behind on your blog reading? Get the full account of my Escort's cross country trip by clicking here.

::DAY 5::

Missoula, Montana

Austin's tough turbo-powered EXP, left. And his old EXP at the boneyard, right.

I am in heaven. I've never seen so many 1gen Escorts in one place!

Old-school Festivas. And an AMC Rebel wagon!

Eagles!

Vegas and Corvairs...

Where old Studes go to die :(

That is one BIG pile of junk. Engines, mostly.

::DAY 4::

Murdo, South Dakota.

The Sioux Motel:

...it looked a lot less creepy in the daylight, but still:

The Pioneer Auto Show

Cool Buick woody:

Pierce-Arrow

GTO Judge--check out the hood-mounted tach

The Messerschmidt: more motorcylcle than car.

The '54 Kaiser Darrin:

Rambler and Road-Runner

Barnload of Buicks

Pioneer's "cowboy town"; and an AMC with a Mercury Cougar

One of Ford's earliest camper-vans:

I love this massive '58 Buick, left. The '58 is also my favorite year of the Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop, right.

The AMX again:

A Trabant wagon and a Sunbeam Alpine:

Lloyd van, Subaru van, and a King Midget:

A 1933 Essex Terraplane--check out the tough hood ornament:

The first Corvette. 1954, I think:

Elvis's Harley. There was a creepy talking Elvis mannequin sitting there in a chair, too. Very Haloween.

The one-off, Dodge hemi-powered "Octo Rod." Please don't ask.

My Escort outside the museum. There's big blue skies here!

One of those packs of motorcyle tourists in front of Pioneer. Cool trikes!

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::DAY 3::

Citation in Minnesota.

Oil change in Rockford, IL.

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::DAY 2::

As long as there's a Taco Bell in every town, I'm happy!

South Bend, Indiana: Pics from the Studebaker National Museum

I-90 through Ohio
The Cherrybomb Exhaust truck honked at my Escort!
The transporter my Escort was supposed to be on; I'm so glad I'm driving instead!

Cleveland

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::DAY 1::

Setting out: look how low the Escort squats under all that stuff! I've got tools and a bunch of Escort parts in there, including a remanufactured head, a starter, and an extra interior--along with several boxes of books.

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7/15/07: Long road ahead

Since Carlisle, I've been making preparations to drive both my cars across the country to begin work at CarDomain in Seattle! Yes, this will involve two transcontinental trips. The reasons for this cumbersome process are numerous and complex, but they basically boil down to the fact that no one else is allowed to drive my cars. Oh well: the only thing better than a road trip is two road trips!

A manual fan switch under the dash now overrides the existing temperature sensor, which doesn't trip the fan until the engine is already way too hot. The new switch, which I can just flip on whenever I hit a slow spot in traffic, has virtually taken care of the problem of overheating at idle.

I've been playing around with the sizing of the jets in the Escort's Holley since Josh showed me how to swap them out. The ones it came with were 51's, and it's clear from the dyno results at Carlisle that the engine is just getting way too much gas: it runs rich like crazy and it bogs out under hard acceleration. We swapped down to 48's and 46's, and then finally to 44's, at which point the engine started to lose power and run hot again, suggesting it was on the lean side. The 46's seem to be the best for good clean accelleration, so they're the ones I'll likely keep for the trip across. But until I can get the Escort on the dyno again (or at least a sniffer), it's all just guesswork.

Since before Carlisle, the Escort's had a torn steering boot on the driver's side, possibly as a result of contact with the custom motor mount. I'll have to keep an eye on it, but for now, it gets a new boot.

Here's my Escort up on the lift at work. Isn't it always weird, somehow, to see your own car up in the air?

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6/01/07-6/03/07: Oh My God, Carlisle!

Drove the Escort 225 miles to Carlisle, PA, for its very first show: the All-Ford Nationals. Hammer-down, 75-80 mph the whole way at 29 and a half MPG and no overheating. This is the first time I've been to a car show as a participant instead of a spectator; I didn't know if my Escort would be laughed out of the place or what.

First things first: here's the Escort at the wash station. Gotta get the bugs and highway grime off my "show car."

Sparse attendance on the first day of the show, Friday, and yet already the Escort is getting some attention. I took some spy shots.

After overnight rain, I wash the Escort again on Saturday morning. I'm literally blinded by the glare!

The engine starts getting real hot as we're sitting in line to enter the fairground. Josh figures a way to rig the fan switch so it stays grounded, and thus on. The motor runs nice and cool after that, even while idling stationary under a blazing sun.

Sizing up the competition: on Saturday, some beautiful late-model tuner Escorts started showing up.

The Escort's dyno adventure

So I've found out where Axcelerated Motorsports is doing the mobile dyno testing. I watch them do a Cobra and a gasser Comet with so much power that it looks like it's going to jump itself right over the wheel blocks, and I decide I have to try it. I'm too broke to part with the 80 bucks and I know the Escort's running bad anyway, but ultimately I can't stop myself: so at the very end of the second day, under a leaden sky, the Escort trundles up the steel ramps, I'm convinced, to meet its maker.

This is the first time since the restoration that someone besides me has driven it. More than a little nerve-wracking, though the AM techs turn out to be extremely competent.

Up on the platform, the Escort represents for CarDomain (check out the passenger-side window sticker). The techs strap it down...

...and hook it up. The Escort will get two dyno pulls to measure torque and horsepower at our agreed-upon max RPM of 4500 (because of the overheating, I've been paranoid about the possibility of a broken head gasket, so I don't want to overdo it). It also gets a sniffer in the tailpipe to evaluate the air/fuel mixture.

Look at those front wheels fly!

Uh... hehe. Before the test, I'd been joking with some bystanders that I wasn't going home until I got 60 hp out of it. Turns out I was only off by four horses. As a wise man once said, booya.

The dip you see at 4300 RPM represents the dead spots I've been feeling in the acceleration; there are more and bigger ones the higher you go, giving the pedal that fluttery feel. The dyno confirmed that my mixture is extremely rich (the same thing my spark plugs have been telling me) and the results show that my big carb is dumping more fuel into the engine than it can burn properly. So it's definitely time to get that carb tuned; the first thing to do will be to jet it down, and then adjust the mixture from there. Once it's set up (assuming I can find someone who can do it), it'll get better power and probably higher gas mileage as well. From 64 hp at the wheels and 84 lbs of torque, there's really nowhere to go but up; I'm really glad I dyno'd it, because it'll be good to have a baseline from which to judge how much of a difference my future mods will be making.

And besides, tomorrow will be a better day: hilariously, the Escort receives first place in its class!
Ever think you'd see an '82 Escort in the winners' circle?

And here we are in the awards parade, behind Dan M., who took first place in the EXP category.

At the grandstand, I get a plaque handed to me and am congratulated by the organizers.

The photographer snaps our picture and tells me I can go stand in line and buy a print for 20 bucks. Forget it, I'm out of there! It's about a 4 hour drive back to Ithaca and I'm happy and exhausted and I want to get out of town ahead of the storm (after being dark, hot, and thundery all weekend, it's finally just starting to rain). Adios, Carlisle! It sure has been a blast, and I can't wait to do it all over again.

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5/31/07: On the eve of Carlisle...

Got the car cleaned up and ready for its first car show, the All-Ford Nationals in Carlisle, PA: 225 miles away. Finally rattle-canned the rocker seam in black satin: I've always hated how it looks sticking out under the car in candy orange (see pics). I wrestled for a bit with that horrible "bodyguard," that clear plastic adhesive strip you can supposedly put on to protect your paint; I had hoped to run some in the undersides of the wheel arches to prevent stone chips, but boy was it ever not worth it. That stuff just will not go onto any surface that's both curved and angled, and it was obvious that if it did go on it would look like crap. I'd rather have a couple of stone chips than that hokey-ass stuff on my car, ugh!

Found a torn steering boot that it's too late to do anything about; it'll have to wait till we get back! The body shop guys, or someone, also forgot to reattach some exhaust hangers around the cat; I'd assumed the rattling I was hearing was a rotted heat sheild, but I guess not. Installed new rubber on the right side and got those all bolted back in, no big deal; I'm more worried about overheating, wrecking, or having the car blow up on the dyno. Wish us luck!

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5/28/07: Escort still runs hot. It hasn't boiled over or anything (yet), but continues to run near the top of the normal range and occasionally gets me worried enough that I have to find a shady place to park and let it cool off for a few minutes. No problem on the highway, but it doesn't handle stop-and-go traffic well at all. It's been idling at 2000 RPM, which isn't helping matters, and there was bit of a coolant leak: the draincock had backed itself off and was thus causing slow coolant loss and certainly compromising the cooling-system pressure as well. The coolant problem was easily solved, but the idle speed is a touchy issue because of course it has to do with the carb which is way too big for the engine. Idle speed screws are already adjusted way down, but it doesn't make much difference. My boyfriend helped me set up this bracket and throttle-return spring on it, which helps hold the throttle closed at idle (it otherwise wants to stick open). This is kind of a stop-gap solution, but it'll have to do until I can get someone to tune the carb for real. Engine now idles at about 1500 RPM, but it's not always consistent.

The big question: will it make it to Carlisle next weekend, 3 hours away, for the All-Ford Nationals? It should, but since a bad head gasket is a possibility (coolant loss, running hot, slight vapor from the tailpipe), it might not be such a bright idea to put it on the dyno when I get there. Damn, I was looking forward to that. Stay tuned.

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Cinco de Mayo: Accel U-Groove spark plugs and Taylor 8mm Spiro-Pro race wires made a word of difference for accelleration. The problems it was having with fluttering and dead spots are virtually eliminated. I think the MSD Blaster coil I got for it will help even more, but I'm currently having an argument with Summit about whether it needs a ballast resistor or not.

More soon!

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5/02/07: the Escort is back on the road.

It's the end of the semester and I'm in the midst of the world's biggest grading crunch, but I had to get my Escort out into the sunshine even if it meant shafting my students. It started up just fine today after I torqued down the valve cover and reinstalled the battery I'd been storing inside all winter. Did an engine flush and an oil change--switched to full synthetic and installed a magnetic drain plug, because I'm a sucker for gimmicky little things. Can't wait to install all the ignition goodies I've ordered from various places including Summit Racing and the CarDomain Store. I was up until 2am last night making a set of plug wires.

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The sun is out and I can't stand it: I want to put the Escort back on the road, but there's still dusty salt residue all around from the last snow. It's killing me! Oh well: the ignition components I've ordered from various sources are going to take another week to get here anyway.

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02/24/07: And so the winter drags on...

This much I've learned: it sucks to live in a climate where you have to put your ride in storage for half the year. I don't know if I just spend too much time looking out my kitchen door at it, but in its curtained room with its hosptial-blue car cover, the Escort is disconcertingly beginning to remind me of a morbidly obese surgery patient. It's been making me antsy, so this weekend I decided to get on my fuzzy slippers and go crawl around in there.

First I had to replace my dehumidifier packs and check for signs of critter life. Here's a great tip: peppermint oil or extract (pictured, soaked into cotton balls) works as well as gross mothballs for repelling mice from your engine and interior. And it keeps your ride minty-fresh!

I also removed the valve-cover, which I'm taking to the powder-coaters on Friday.

4/23/07: I had them do it in Ford Engine Blue!

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Hehehe, this is the weirdest thing ever:

Through some series of bizarre flukes, my Escort managed to rise to the number-two top-rated ride on Cardomain, out of nearly half a million cars. It was second only to Tomcat, which isn't even a car, it's a car club.

During this same time, it was also the top-rated Ford out of 57,758 cars. Inexplicably, the Escort maintained these rankings for a good couple of weeks, and in this time, haters, sore about the idea of a lowly Escort receiving this kind of recognition, chipped away at its rating until it was down to 3 stars. Lol, oh well! At least now I can get some peace and quiet.

Incidentally, both my cars have been featured on the CarDomain blog. As of 12/20/06, I'm the only Cardomain member to have had multiple cars featured.

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11/27/06: Cozy Winter Escort Refuge:

Yesterday I got my Escort squared away to wait out the winter salt and bad weather. The car is all tarped in to the little entry nook that passes for a garage, which means that my house no longer has a functional front entrance. (Who needs it!) With a plastic-sheeted floor to keep out the damp, rubberized canvas tarps all around, car cover, and a 24-hour dehumidifier, the car will be snug until next spring, and that's what matters.

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11/12/06: The Escort has been on the road for about a month. The only mechanical problem it's had so far was a punctured heater hose, as a result of it slouching too close to the alternator blades after one of the zip ties broke. Had to do a job with duct tape to get it home. No big deal.

The nice weather is winding down and it'll soon be time to take the Escort off the road for the winter (and I'd only just gotten started!).

Overwinter to-do list: get valve cover powdercoated, audio, ignition upgrade including performance plugs and wires, coil, grounding kit.

Future plans: head ported/polished, custom-ground cam from Delta Camshaft or Elgin. Might need an electric fuel pump; there's a bit of a hole in the accelleration, and I'm not sure if the stock mechanical pump is getting enough juice to the carb. I'm going to try tuning the carb first, though.

CHECK OUT...
PAGE 1 Welcome
PAGE 2 The Escort's Restoration
PAGE 3 The Escort Diaries: Current Mods and Updates You are HERE
PAGE 4 My Stories on the CarDomain Blog

...and don't forget to swing by my other ride page to witness the winter-wheeling adventures of the mighty AMC Eagle.